It was ridiculously easy to get Weaving to Rank D. And then even Rank C.
I just had to practice and watch videos that were being sold in the Shop, recorded by professionals.
The Guildmaster showdown was already decided, so even if I ranked up higher than Carlo now, it was still going to happen. I asked, to be absolutely sure before I began. There was no way in hell some weird technicality was going to make me Guildmaster.
But the skill wasn't really high enough to sell the goods. Everyone else was good enough to sell class A or S, if they'd had the skills in the past. Even B class folks, hobbyists and the like, were getting good prices for things. But until I could get to A, it just wouldn't be worth it. The only thing I got in skill form that made things easier was patching and darning.
I could fix any damage dealt to Sophia's equipment, because it was cloth. Mine was silk, which would require a MUCH higher level of expertise. Not to mention the leather parts...
But after weaving a bunch of blankets from Rayon Yarn with rubber gloves on, at least I managed to get a useful weaving skill. 'Simple Weave' which was the most simple type of weave a person could do. The Beginner's weave. When I used it, it would give me a menu of items and I could have them woven from the pattern.
It made me exhausted afterwards, so I stopped yesterday, as today... today was for the 'raid'.
"We've got everything, right?" Patrice asked. "I've got bullets, Annika has her surgeon kit and Marisol has all those traps you had her make. Uhhh."
"I've already outfitted Marisol and Annika with the spellcards they would need," I replied and walked over to hand her a few Shields. "Just rip them and tap whatever you want to put a barrier over. One at a time unless stated otherwise, please."
She took them from me and tucked them into her belt. It was fairly tight, so I didn't see them going anywhere, but it still made me frown internally. I tried to keep my actual expression flat. I've noticed that lately it's getting harder and harder. And I don't know why. I've been taking my meds faithfully, I shouldn't be losing control of my emotions or expressions.
"Everybody got their Caltrops?" Marisol asked. "Stun Balls? I've got the Spike Traps ready to set up."
"We're all just nervous," Annika said. "We shouldn't feel rushed just because Carlo cleared his dungeon the day after he picked it."
"They came back with severe injuries because they were unprepared," I said and frowned. "Carlo hadn't seemed that hot-headed to me, before."
"They're men," Patrice said. "They've been raised to believe if there was a war they would conquer all and come home to plough their rightfully-earned wives. Of course they just ran in."
It was a bit ridiculous. None of them were in the army before, only Carlo was a firefighter. The rest in the building that joined his party were mostly old retired men... well, aside from Jacob White. He was a 'linebacker' but that only meant he was suited to defense. Tanking. Carlo and Jacob alone couldn't have cleared the dungeon, so they had to accept help from whoever volunteered...
Except Derek, who was blacklisted by all parties at this point.
Jamal was still recovering, but they had Michael Lawson.
They hadn't wanted anyone from the 'council' to go, but they said they needed to be seen backing Carlo, since we were all fairly certain he would win anyway. And to make it look as natural as possible, by borrowing a trick from old books.
The hero's adventuring party were all risen to fame next to him, after all. And even if it was only really one council member, it didn't really matter which one of them it was or how many they had behind him, it mattered that a councilmember was supporting him.
Made people a bit more jumpy, though, when they all came home with bloody lacerations and an unconscious Anatomancer.
"I don't understand how that could take precedent over their actual thoughts," I said. "Michael at least, would've said something about being prepared, wouldn't he?"
"You'd think so," Annika rolled her eyes. "I'm under Michael in the Paramedicals, and he was saying with a healer, they wouldn't really need to be that prepared. That as long as he made a bunch of healing spells in the Flectors they could use, then he'd be able to hold out during the whole raid."
"Has anyone in this building played video games before?" I asked. "You always need to be on top of everything as a healer. You have to stay close to the tanks and DPS to keep them healed and it often involved spamming. In real life, our 'mana' or whatever doesn't recover that quickly."
"Yeah, well, they learned their lesson," Annika said and shrugged. "Oh, did I tell you guys I sold a bunch of my work to the Shop?" She smiled brightly. "The more I sell, the more well-known I'll become and the more they'll be worth. The Shop advertises based on the persons' own stated preferences, so let's hope the algorithm doesn't fuck me over."
"That's great," Patrice said, but there was no enthusiasm. She looked back to the entrance of the 'dungeon' and seemed to swallow hard.
"It's time to go," I said. "Does everyone remember their roles?"
"Me and you stay at the back, behind Patrice," Annika stated.
"Marisol uses her new D-rank skill to summon 'tanks'," Patrice said.
"Patrice provides ranged dps support," Marisol said.
"If anyone needs more mana, I have Flectors, call for me," I said. I'd been stocking up ever since I found out they were a thing and there weren't any attacks all day. Every night at bedtime, six Flectors. You could fill them with spells, too, but I didn't have normal spells. Michael did. I'd have to write the spell ON the Flector, it didn't accept anything else from me, specifically. Class balances...
We stood before the entrance and Marisol took a deep breath. She lifted her hand and said "Clockwork Dummy!" and there it was.
It erupted from a spray of sparks and stood before us, utterly lifeless. She said it twice more and then there were three of them standing there. She'd had them stored away in her inventory, rather than summoning or creating them with a skill. Summoning things from the inventory had those weird little touches. Like red smoke in my case...
They appeared to be made of some kind of brassy metal. And they looked... kind of like Mannequins. Empty-chested Mannequins.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
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"Okay!" she sighed. "I'm gonna put the cores in, give them their orders and then we're starting for real!"
"Annika, you can't heal the dolls, so focus on Marisol," I said.
She scrunched her nose. "I know!"
"Did you really?" Patrice asked. "Cause I figure those rods should count as bones, honestly."
Marisol ignored the jabberjaws and stuck the core into each doll. The cage of brassy metal was wrapped around some kind of glowing blue orb. I had no idea how any of that worked, but Marisol seemed to understand it perfectly as she nestled the cores into their empty chests and whispered something to each of them.
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They made these weird click-clack noises as their limbs began to move.
"Okay, I told them to 'occupy the enemy and protect our allies'," Marisol said and moved toward the portal. "An enemy appears, and they'll handle it!"
They looked flimsy to me, but they were made of metal, so I assumed they could at least take more damage than a human could.
We stepped forward behind Marisol and her clockwork dolls, but we all had a hesitation before entering the portal behind them. Annika clutched her Surgeon's kit and rushed forward into it. We heard a clang and a high pitched voice shrieking 'ow!' so Patrice and I both walked slowly to the portal and took one step through before stopping.
"Are we in the right place?" Patrice asked, her eyes bugging out.
"I know, right!?" Marisol was already further in with her dolls, examining a tree. It was silver-barked with purple leaves. Weeping willows with twisted trunks of pure silver... and the atmosphere might've been creepy if it were darker, but since the light was peeking through the mist... and the mist wasn't that thick...
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"This is the most beautiful tree I've ever seen," Marisol said as she leaned on the biggest one in the clearing.
"It's like Wisteria, but..." Annika suddenly said. "That bark looks like... it's made of metal?"
Marisol knocked on the trunk and it did indeed make a clanging sound when the metal parts over her knuckles hit it.
"Oh my god, I think this is real silver, or... something like silver, but bark?" Marisol turned and looked at us, biting her lip. "Can I get some!?"
"After we defeat the enemies, feel free. But you're sharing it with the guild. We have more than just you in a Tinker-like Class," I replied.
She clapped and bounced, then turned to her dolls. "Are there any enemies around?"
They didn't respond.
"I guess they're not close enough," Marisol said. "Let's walk them around, find these creatures FAST and AHHHHHH!"
We were attacked before we could even perceive their presence.
Thankfully, the Dolls immediately lunged to get the weird little creature out of Marisol's hair and we all backed into the middle of the clearing.
"What the HELL is this thing?" Marisol demanded. She stared at the creature being held tightly by the Doll. "Patrice, can you-?"
Patrice already had her gun out before I could stop her.
It was idiotic to kill something loudly in a copse of trees that were likely FILLED with hundreds more of the things. They were the size of housecats, with purplish-silver fur and small enough to populate the entire GROVE without being detectable in the trees!
When the reverberating waves of the shot had died down, I turned on Patrice with a glare. "Great job, now they all know we're here! Don't shoot something in captivity unless it's-"
And they dropped. They dropped from the trees.
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There were tiny ones, too, that seemed entirely purple. Like a baby duck with its yellow down.
"Fuck, sorry!" Patrice said loudly as they began rushing toward us.
"Save it for after," I said and pulled a card immediately, ripping it and tapping one of the Dolls. "Grab as many as you can and offer them to us for the final blow!"
It was all they could do, because of their instructions. Protect and hold off the enemy. I needed to talk with Marisol about her instructions in the future.
They were able to grab one or two at a time and since we had tapped them all with barriers, the things couldn't even damage them a little. But we struggled.
Patrice shot the things one after the other, but she had to use her skills to hit them, which tired her out quickly. They were too fast and zipped all over the fucking place!
After they'd badgered us back toward the portal, they took off for the trees again, where their babies were sitting. Grabbed them and climbed back up into the trees.
"They're just protecting their babies!" Annika said. "I don't like this!"
"They're cursed creatures," Patrice argued. "Their existence makes the surroundings... well, like this. I saw the name of the tree in the system before they attacked and it said 'Dead Silver Wisteria'. Those trees are DEAD."
"But they just want to live!" Annika argued.
"And they will," I replied.
They both looked at me. Marisol was shaking, holding her arm where one had scratched her. It was turning purple.
"Marisol, get a curse cure from Annika, Patrice... we're going to hunt down and kill every ADULT cursed beast." Because I had looked at THEIR names as well. Cursed Encrova - Beastkin. "Then we're taking the babies to Mrs. Katz."
"Oh!" Annika sighed in relief. "She can tame beastkin, right? I still don't like it, but as long as we don't have to kill the babies..."
We'd be unable to get ALL the babies, of course. Mrs. Katz can only have so many Beasts in her... was it a pack or a colony? Either way, only so many beasts would be allowed in at her level, currently. And these things were D-Rank, which meant she might not even be able to tame them at her current F.
"How many?" Marisol asked as Annika handed her one of the cures we'd bought from the Shop.
I waited until she'd swallowed it, to answer.
"She might not be able to tame any," I said. "But at most we'll be able to give her three of them. Next month, I'll bet these babies grow into the new mommas with babies that have to defend their territory from whoever comes after us."
"That's awful!" Annika said. "If we can't even purify the place-"
PING!
CONGRATULATIONS 'GIRL TALK' PARTY!
Fuck, what is it now? God, that name looks as bad as I thought it would.
You have discovered a hidden quest! Purify the Corrupted Copse
"It's underlined, like a link," Patrice said and reached up to touch it.
"Don't FUCKING touch it," I snapped.
Her hand whipped down. "Sorry! Sorry."
"If you're sorry, stop making unilateral decisions or following the lead of only one party member!" I said. "Marisol hadn't even specified what she wanted you to do yet, before you whipped that thing out!"
"Okay! I get it!" she huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm touching nothing and shooting nothing unless everybody agrees! I've got it."
"Or it's trying to kill us," Marisol said. "Right?"
"If it CAN," Annika said with a pout. "Those things could barely scratch us."
"Let's decide. Do we want to purify the Copse?" I said, to get us back on subject.
The System waited patiently, as it always does. No countdowns.
"Yeah, let's do it!" Marisol said. "Even if we can't stop it from resetting, it'll be uncursed from now on, right? And these little... it says 'Encrova' right? These little Encrova will just be normal animals."
"They'll still get hunted," Patrice said. "But it'll be less dangerous for us and their pelts will probably be worth less, so... less hunting overall?"
"Fine, everyone hit the link and let's go," I said.